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Exercise and Fat loss in the News

This week has been an interesting one in the health and fitness world. As everyone knows, we are in the middle of watching the government try to decide what is best for us for health insurance coverage. Endless debates about what should be covered, who will pay, whether there will be private plans and public plans, whether the government will get to dictate health care to us all. It's mind boggling.

Then there was the Time Magazine article which looked at a study that examined the impact of the amount of time spent per week exercising. The study used post-menopausal women and was looking at the relationship between expected weight loss and actual weight loss based on how many minutes per week they trained. They did not control for diet and the women were asked to not change their dietary habits.

Their conclusion was that exercising about 194mins per week (a little over 3 hours) gave worse than expected results and that those who exercised about 136 mins per week met expectations. All groups showed weight loss. The finding lead the researchers to decide that the body compensates for the extra work-load by making you hungry, eating more.

Of course that's true. I'm ravenous after a good hard strength session. You need to eat more to fuel muscle growth and strength. However just because you are hungrier or had a hard workout doesn't mean you can scarf down a pizza afterward, yet many people do just that. "Oh I just exercised hard for an hour, I think I'll go to Starbucks and have a Venti Frappachino and a big muffin". If that is you you just totally wasted an hour of exercise. That drink and muffin have way more calories and worse, sugar and no protein that you could ever burn in an hour workout. So make you post workout meal something nutritious, like a chicken breast with a salad a fruit and maybe a small baked potato with some butter (no margarine).

The author of the Time Magazine article basically tries to make it sound as though exercise is a waste of time, because it doesn't really burn much fat. That is true and I tell my clients that all the time. Changing your eating habits is a much better way to lose fat. But eating right plus exercise is the best way to lose fat and keep it off.

In addition, the body needs exercise. It helps maintain muscles and bones, promotes joint health and heart health too. So don't be fooled into thinking that you are wasting time and energy by training, you aren't. You will feel much better, have more energy and sleep better if you get in 3 hours per week of moderately intense weight training with kettlebells and some more time doing things like hiking, gardening or playing a sport.

And yesterday, MSNBC.com had an article on weightlifting and breast cancer survivors . Doctors used to tell women to not lift weights, pick up their kids or do anything else strenuous because they thought it would cause painful inflammation in the arms of those who have had radiation to the armpit, or lymph nodes removed to check forcancer. New studies have revealed that those women who strength train actually have fewer problems after chemo and radiation than those who did nothing.

This is along the same track as doctors who told people with back injuries to stay in bed to let the back heal, or people who had had heart attacks to never do anything strenuous. Weightlifting is GOOD for you, if you are strong you can handle illness much better, recover better and stay healthy longer.

Regardless of your current health you should always:

Seek out a competent trainer and learn proper mechanics
Start gradually and build slowly - getting strong and remaining injury free takes time
If you have had breast cancer experience the swelling mentioned about get fitted for a compression garmet
Lift! Whether it's barbell work, kettlebell work, sandbags or whatever, go hard, lift heavy and get healthy!